Restaurante Luar Da Fóia — Restaurant in Monchique

Hilariously catastrophic experience from start to finish. We've been going here for 4 years in a row. The service, which was good before, has now reached total rock bottom; to the point an animal would be better served. 1) we order an entrée with 20 year old red ports and main dish. The waitress doesn't even take notes. The entrées arrive but not the port. 2) We wait 10 min until the ports arrive and it turns out there is not enough port in the two bottle bottoms she brought. She tells us more will come soon (?!) 3) After 5 min she gives us cheaper port since what we asked for isn't there. 4) 5 min later, right in the middle of our entrée, the main course comes. Waiters argue among themselves because it's way too soon but finally we have to take the main plates and put the entrées on the side of the table. We barely had time to eat anything or taste the port. 5) We ask for some extra sauces but they don't come until we ask three times. 6) The cherry on the cake: after the main course, the waitress picks up the plates and drops part of it on the table, fully spilling the almost untouched 20 year port on my trousers. 7) We ask for the manager. He doesn't show up. Instead the main waiter shows up with an incredibly haughty attitude, denying anything is wrong with the service. When told to just stop speaking, he tells us "I'm in my place and I stop speaking when I want to”. Just incredibely rude and disrespectful. 8) Customers at a table next to us take our defence and start arguing with the main waiter too. 9) The owner finally shows up and tells us "things like these sometimes happen”, trying to pretend it's perfectly normal, but not even daring to look us in the eye. 10) No one of the staff takes responsability and the main waiter tries to make us say what he should do to compensate. We refuse. 11) In the end, they offered the ports and entrées and billed the main courses, wine, salads and water. To the reader: make your own conclusion. One thing is sure: if you want to be treated like a cash-bearing sheep,...

We recently went to this restaurant for a birthday meal whilst visiting Portugal (staying in Gale near Albufiera) and we saw this via a Tripadvisor recommendation and we were not disappointed.

On arrival at about 18:10 the place was empty with just a single female member of staff and 1 customer (possibly the owner) sat drinking wine. The girl serving asked if we wanted to sit inside or out, it was windy out so we elected for halfway and sat in a sort of conservatory which still gave great views of the Algarve from the mountain top.

After ordering drinks (Large glasses of Sagres and Sangria) we ordered our food. A selection of cut ham, bread, cheese and olives was straight on the table as it was offered as we ordered starters. Extra to these we ordered the Mushrooms in Honey and Port and a Fish Soup. The Mushrooms are a must, oh my god they are good!

Next came the main dishes, 3 of us had the Wild Boar stew, 2 with chestnuts and 1 with prunes. The other 3 of us had the Octopus with sweet potato, the chicken piri piri and the Blackened Pork (Monchique style) with Bread Mash. Again these mains were simply delightful. The bread mash is simply gorgeous as is the Wild Boar, but be aware that the dishes are huge!

To finish we had 3 deserts to share, a Mango mousse and 2 honey cakes.

The views of the mountain are great, get here early for dinner and you can see the Algarve coastline get darker and darker until the lights all start coming on in the dark. There was something quite magical about watching this transition.

Beware that when you get the bill you will be offered an Algarve tipple, Firewater! The sweet one is nice, the strong is blow your socks off strong! The bonus of the whole night was the price. Great views, fantastic food and service all for half what you can expect to...

A super restaurant known for its meat grills which you can inspect in a big fridge as you enter passing the grill chefs. However the local stews are the best around. We started with black pig ham and local tangy cheese with bread which we devoured like wolves. This was followed by octopus stew with oranges and lemons, a pairing I’ve not had before but will again! and wild boar with chestnuts, again a superb unctuous stew with the tenderest meat that melted in the mouth. We had two bottles of fabulous red wine (see pic) and stayed for three hours. The waiters really enjoy the theatre of it all as people around us enjoyed huge kebab skewers served at your table and de-spiked with a flourish. Reader, we went back the next day for those kebabs. My partner had chicken and I plumped for tuna and that tuna was indeed plump, big chunks of meaty chargrilled fish so tender it must have been caught that morning. The portions are epic so we rolled out of there but not before finishing a really good bottle of white wine (see picture) that would challenge a great chateaux. The atmosphere is also relaxed and fun as the staff clearly enjoy sharing their cuisine with the guests. Book ahead to get a table outside with fabulous views but tables inside give you a bit of theatre so no worries if you can’t get one. The razor clams in season...